Mr. Jerry Early:

At the moment it is under 400 for the first time in its history, but what is more frightening is that the youngest child on Arranmore Island is three years old. I do a bit of choir work as well with the national school. I missed the communion this year. I apologised to the principal and said I would make it doubly good next year. She said there is no next year because there is no child of first communion age. The impact on that side of it is one thing but when one takes into account the impact on morale that follows on from that, it is a massive issue emotionally for me personally because I have been doing this since 2006.

I have been talking in this forum and we have been fighting this campaign. It is bigger than the Bill. The Bill is a chance to bring back a little part of what we had. One could ask whether we will ever get back to the levels of the past. Absolutely not, but it is a start. We must stop the trend of where we are going. That is why the Bill is not just important, it is about the life of the islands. I implore the committee members to do something. It is in their hands whether the islands live or die. I will fight the fight until I can no longer breathe but it is such a massive issue for us. We have lost a generation of young fishermen. My grandfather, my father and I were given a simple way of life. We learned how to row a boat, fish, crew the lifeboat and be an islander. I have a son who is 19 years of age and he cannot row a boat. He cannot tie the rope of a boat. That is not his fault. It is not my fault. It is not my grandfather's fault or my father's fault, that is the fault, unfortunately, of the legislators, the Government and the previous Governments of this country.

We were accused of being discriminatory. That was a new one on me. That blew me out of my seat: that island people would be discriminating against mainlanders. I am sorry but that was a ridiculous and irresponsible thing to say. I cannot say strongly enough how important it is to put that on the record. I know the will is here in the committee and it is imperative that this Bill, even though it is flawed in many ways, gives us a chance to start building again in some shape or form.